Had the chance to meet Benoit @FoilATX with AFS Foils and he showed up at my local today with a mountain of gear and let me an some friends shred all of it! Conditions were thigh high shore break with 20 kt sideshore wind. I was able to prone the 850 and 1050 and winged the 850. For reference i’m 220 lbs and have been prone foiling for 6 years.
As most people on this forum know I’m very critical of foil construciton and stiffness of setups. I’ve not ridden many setups that are stiff and reliable out of the box but today i was blown away. Assembled the AFS has 0 connection movement - on par with a good unifoil setup and a hair better than my current gen 2 gofoil. Mast was 14mm thick and had a pretty compact chord. For such a thin compact mast it was VERY stiff(sorry no hard data) but by my hand bending the foil around on the beach it was phenomenal. Its clear from the construction that they use every fraction of a MM of thickness to achieve that stiffness(uni carbon all the way to the outer layer). I’m no engineer but it had all the halmarks of a slippery setup in a stiff package.
The wing/fuse is a one piece construction with a large flat underside tail mount for the stab. I feel like some other brands taper the mount area out too much, reducing the contact patch for the stab but this was nice and wide for a robust connection. The stab itself was shaped to blend into the fuse, seemed well thought out and really flowed with the connection, probably the best i’ve seen for a universal flat mount.
When riding, the mast stiffness absolutely translated to the foils. I never felt any bend, even in choppy chaotic conditions. I rode these foils all day and was never once bucked or negatively suprised by the foils. Very reliable. Both foils were able to pump around and connect easily, even looping into the strong headwind when necessary. I was expecially impressed with the 850 which i was able to “give the business” when pumping and it didn’t falter.
Winging the 850 was a riot but every wing is good winging (high aspects, low aspects, big wings, small wings, red wings, blue wings) - I was very tired when winging because it felt like the 850 was demanding i throw many many turns! Always a nice feeling!
I’ve ridden good wings and wings that have something special. The original kujira 1210 had that something special, and has always been a battle to get it stiff enough to make that magic reliable. These wings definately retained that special something and it was a joy to have the construction to match. I feel like this is a nobrainer for someone looking for a next-gen kujira. I will say, like the original 1210, these wings aren’t high aspect pump machines. The center of the wing has some chord and has that ripping mid aspect feel. It definately benefits from that Kujira style magic low bottom end to pump around.
These wings were super approachable. We’re all good foilers, no strangers to this size range, and we were able to hop on and connect waves and shore-run down the beach as long as we were inclined(didn’t want Benoit to think we were making off with them!). I feel like its rare i’m able to feel that on my first glide on a foil.
On a personal note i’m grateful that Benoit came out and visited our spot and put gear in our hands. On the internet opinions are like…so i’m not inclined to trust much. I’m sure everyone thinks the same of my opinions at this point so i encourage you to feel the quality construction for yourself. Benoit and the AFS crew seem committed to building something cool and doing that by putting gear in foilers hands - so trusting opinions may be optional.
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